Buddhist psychotherapy

 “Everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s  attitude in  any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
                                                                                               

As a child survivor of a devastating earthquake that took place in Armenia in 1988, growing up in poverty and war, I have known trauma at a very young age. Adding to this a decade of wrestling with an undiagnosed chronic health condition as a young adult and the havoc it can create in one’s life, I can confidently say: I know what it means to experience trauma. 

However, it is exactly because of these traumatic events and experiences that I decided to devote my life not only to healing myself but also to develop deeper understanding thanks to my professional training, education, and experience while working in mental health. This is where I discovered the wonderful world of relating to another’s pain in order to reduce their suffering in the face of trauma. Thus, I changed careers from being a teacher of literature at a major university, to becoming a student of psychotherapy, dedicating my life to the healing of trauma, while using the body as my specialty. 

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I am a Buddhist meditator, and have been extensively trained in meditation and healing of trauma while incorporating various therapeutic skills, with emphasis on awareness of the body as I apply highly effective 2600-years-old Buddhist meditation techniques. These in turn are brought into my training as a Western-trained psychotherapist, using modern evidenced-based psychotherapeutic tools, including such modalities as Somatic Experiencing and Internal Family Systems Therapy. 

In my professional experience in the field, I have helped people from different ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, as well as various age ranges. I have been particularly moved in my work by the elderly population, people with far more experience in life than I, where I was given access to hear their pain and was privileged with their trust in me, despite being much younger in age. Owing to these experiences, I am very comfortable being around patients of different ages, because to me working with elderly individuals, although at first  intimidating, nevertheless provided me with the greatest of rewards. 

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My name is Narine Jallatyan. I have a Masters Degree in Psychology from the University of the West, and a second Masters in Comparative Literature from UCLA. I have travelled extensively around the world, and being born overseas, I speak multiple languages in addition to English, including Armenian and Russian.